As the University Theatre prepares for another weekend of its successful “Playhouse Creatures,” the Robinson Theatre will play host to a more serious topic tonight. Taking the stage, internationally recognized ecologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber will lecture on chemical contamination of the environment and its connection with human rights.
Presented by Oregon Toxics Alliance and partnered with the University Theatre, Steingraber will speak on a number of chemical contamination issues while emphasizing the link between the environment and the rights of the people who live within it. Much of Steingraber’s research and commitment to the field of ecology has helped to power the understanding that irresponsible use of chemicals has caused many modern illnesses.
“She is probably one of the world’s foremost thinkers in the area of environmental activism and especially in the new area of environment and human rights,” Lisa Arkin, executive director for the Oregon Toxics Alliance, said.
As part of her lecture, Steingraber will focus on the local misuse of spraying pesticides on Oregon forests as well as in city parks and open grass areas. The discussion is something that connects closely with policies the Oregon Toxics Alliance advocates for.
“We’ve tried to assist rural communities to take on oppositions to pesticide sprays that are done without people’s permission over forest and agricultural lands that impact the people living on those lands,” Arkin said.
The lecture also serves as part of an ongoing discussion that connects with the University Theatre’s spring production “Salmon is everything.” The production will focus on the pollution of rivers and the survival of salmon from an indigenous perspective.
Steingraber, who labels herself as a cancer survivor, ecologist and mother, began discovering the link between illness and the environment when she was diagnosed with urinary system cancer as a 20-year-old undergraduate. Her experience led her to begin the foundation on the theory that her cancer may have been a result of the environment she grew up in rather than a result of genetics. Because of her experience and the amount of research she has done, Steingraber’s lectures are a mix of scientific data and personal experience.
“I bring a really personal approach, so audiences can expect a lot of narrative and first-person perspective as well as hard science,” Steingraber said.
The hard science aspect of Steingraber’s lecture comes from years of research and multiple contributions to the field of ecology. Publishing multiple books and contributing to many environmental publications, she has helped power what she hopes will be another human rights movement, which will be for the protection of the environment.
Her visit to Eugene will mark the release of her fourth published book, entitled “Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis.” The book focuses on how parenting is closely tied to policy making. It explores how the environmental crisis has become a family crisis in the way that daily activities are continuously affected by the environment we operate within.
“Because I’m launching my book, this will be the first stop on my book tour,” Steingraber said.
At the end of the lecture, Steingraber will read an excerpt from the book and stay afterward to sign books.
Steingraber’s visit and research represents just how closely people rely on the environment and the devastating effects that come as a result of mistreating it.
“It’s all connected,” Arkin said. “It’s all about what are we doing to the environment, what are we doing to ourselves and what are we doing to future generations.”
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